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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sahir, like his name, was a "magician" of words. He wove fascinating images in songs and ghazals, spellbinding his listeners and readers for decades. For about thirty years, he remained associated with the Hindi film industry. He composed hundreds of songs for Hindi/Urdu films. Most of his songs became hugely popular and are even today sung and hummed by people of all generations. Sahir`s most remarkable contribution is that through his lyrics, he catapulted the standards of Hindi film songs to a level that became the benchmark for quality poetry. His lyrics have immortalized many songs in the memory of Hindi film lovers.

For a moment, imagine and visualize the scene from Guru Dutt`s Pyaasa (1957) :

Jinhe naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hain !

The song succinctly portrays the decadence in Indian society, even as the accompanying visual is the camera tracking through a street of brothels. Or remember a dashing Devanand in Hum Dono (1961), bellowing curls of smoke and singing :-

Take a romantic Amitabh Bachchan, ambling about a bed of flowers and crooning in the sylvan color riot of Yash Chopra`s Kabhi Kabhi (1976).

Early life: A soul rending journey

1921. Abdul Hayi (later Sahir Ludhianvi) was born in 1921 in a jagirdar (feudal) family in Ludhiana, Punjab. He had several stepmothers but he was the only son of his father, a rich landlord.

1934. His childhood was hardly normal. When he was in his early teens, his parents separated. Sahir stayed with his mother choosing penury over luxury when his mother took the bold step of getting away from her man, forfeiting all claims to the financial assets. Father sued for child-custody and lost. There were threats that he will make sure Sahir does not live with his mother very long, even if that means taking the child's life. Mother found friends who kept a close watch on Sahir and din't let him out of sight. His mother and uncle took care of him. The formative years of Sahir were steeped in fear and financial deprivation. He studied at Khalsa High School, Ludhiana.

1939. He went to the Government College there. He soon became popular for his extracurricular activities, especially poetry. He fell in love with one of his fans, the daughter of a rich man. But, the affair ended because of Sahir`s poverty and he was finally expelled from college. The streak of tragedy developed early in his life -- his mother`s suffering, while his father enjoyed a comfortable life, and his own failure to find love.

1943: Out of college, and by now having finished writing his first serious work *TalkhiyaaN*, Sahir leaves Ludhiana and goes to Lahore to find a publisher who would take it. He does, after two years of getting shuttled here and there.

1945: The result was a collection of Poems, Talkhiyaan (Bitterness Galore), his first serious work. He left Ludhiana for Lahore and after struggling for two years succeeded in publishing his work. He then took up the editorship of Adab-e-Latif, Shahkaar and later on, Savera, which were reputed Urdu magazines.

1949. Sahir`s inflammatory writings in Savera got him an arrest warrant from the Pakistan government, and he had to leave Lahore. He fled to Delhi and stayed there for a few months. Finally, he went over to Bombay and settled there. For the next 31 years, he created history. He wrote more than 200 amazing ghazals, geets (songs), nazms (a genre of Urdu poetry), and songs, which have become a part of the evergreen and immortal body of Hindi film music. His style of writing lyrics revolutionized song writing in Bollywood.

Veteris Vestegia Flammae : Sahir, the Love of Amrita's Life?

A bachelor to the end, Sahir Ludhianvi fell in love with writer Amrita Pritam and singer Sudha Malhotra, relationships that never fructified in the conventional sense and left him sad. Ironically, the two ladies' fathers wouldn't accept Sahir, an atheist, because of his perceived religion. Had they seen the iconoclast in him, that would have been worse; being an atheist was worse than belonging to the 'other' religion. Sahir, perhaps, had an answer to such artificial barriers in these lines written for Naya Raasta (1970):

(In this world, full of hatred, we have to build a colony of love,Staying afar is no great achievement, come close so that we can achieve our purpose.)

A path-breaking writer in her language, Amrita chose to live life on her own terms. Locked in a loveless marriage to a businessman at the age of 16, she fell in love with the poetry of Sahir Ludhianvi and nurtured an infatuation for many years. She wrote his name hundreds of times on a sheet of paper while addressing a press conference. They would meet without exchanging a word, Sahir would puff away. After Sahir's departure, Amrita would smoke the cigarette butts left behind by him. According to Amrita, Sahir was a weaver of words, who, all his life, continued weaving the dreams of others but he, himself, could not become the dream of any. Amrita Pritam was that lady who not only loved him but worshipped him like a god. After his death, Amrita said she hoped the air mixed with the smoke of the butts would travel to the other world and meet Sahir! Such was their obsession and intensity. A Maude Gonne bye Yeats!

( I feel that the fire of the cremation ghat is an insult to the flame. I recognize the "flame" that burnt in the hearts of any Sohni, Sassi or Heer.)

The Truth - Her Life was an Open Book - Including Her love for Sahir Ludhianvi

The greatest aspect of Amrita Pritam's life was the way she embraced truth. She gave a new meaning to the expression "my life is an open book." Whatever she experienced, she recorded in her poems and novels - her legendary love for Sahir Ludhianvi, the famous Urdu poet, included. So many of her anecdotes revolved around her love for this man. Like the time her son came to her and said, "People say that I am Sahir Uncle's son." Imagine the inner courage and conviction of a woman who could reply, " I wish you were Sahir Uncle's son."

Amrita Pritam's Tribute on Sahir's Death

Amrita's tribute, on Sahir’s death, was also above par and it could not have been any better by anybody other than Amrita Pritam. Sometimes before Sahir died, both Amrita and Sahir had gone to Russia to attend a conference. There, they were given small name plates to display on their body but since the plates had been made in Hindi, Sahir’s plate went to Amrita and her plate went to Sahir. Sahir wanted to exchange but she said no to it saying that this way his name will be more near to her heart. After a short period of their return from Russia, Sahir died. She said, "I made the biggest mistake of my life in not exchanging the plates. It was actually my death that was destined but the god of death, mistakenly, took away Sahir seeing my placard pinned on his chest."

This couplet appeared on the first page of Sahir's first poetry book : 'talkhiyaaN' (Bitterness), and aptly so.

Ashkon mein jo paya hai, woh geeton me diya hai...

Sahir was basically a romantic poet. He had failed in love many times and therefore, his poetry is full of tragic emotions. He excels in portraying tragedy without going overboard. He talks of personal romance and the ensuing disillusionment. Then he talks of universal romance, and the inevitable frustration that follows it. His poetry is an amazing canvas of romantic shades.

The style is simple, straight, and direct. He minces no words. He expresses his thoughts directly without sublimating emotions. Sahir at times gets angry too. His anger can be against God or society. He challenges God and he challenges moribund traditions of society. He throws a gauntlet at the bourgeoisie members of society and their feudal mentality:

As a poet, Sahir belonged to the Progressive Writers` Movement. His poetry had a clear leaning towards socialist philosophy. Sahir was a multifaceted poet. Though his poetry was mostly tragic, romantic, and socialist, he also gave his perspectives on humanism, secularism, and feminism :

A colossus among song writers, Sahir fought for, and became the first film lyricist to get, royalty from music companies. He would deeply involve himself in the setting of tunes for his songs. Any wonder why they are extra melodious? There was a negative trait too: Sahir would insist he be paid a rupee more for each song than Lata Mangeshkar was.

Sahir will always find place in the hearts of his fans and his words will always echo ...

The truth is, that Sahir, the magician of lyrics, was perhaps the last of his tribe. His place in Hindi film music remains at the top, unchallenged, and untouchable. We lost this magician to death, in 1980.

Sahir was considered a *romantic*: personal romance and the resultant disillusionment, followed by universal romance and the resultant frustration with *the way it is*. He never minced the words, did not sublimate emotions. He expressed thoughts clearly and directly. He used to get angry and sarcastic, and at the same time he used to dream. It was the dreamer in Sahir that gave him his characteristic style: *narm-o-naazuk swar, shabdoN ki sundar taraash-kharaash aur neeNd mein doobaa huaa vaataavaran*:

Here is a beautiful write up by Mr. Guri, contributed by him on June 20, 1995, on the site :-

http://www.urdupoetry.com/articles/art12.html

SAHIR'S STUFF : SOCIALISTIC OR SUFIYAA ?????

Sorry, guys, for coming around here less often than I've wanted to...been engulfed in a production ...I had started this post in the days of RJGK 22, when I think it was Ashok who said the article on Sahir's life talked about 'Universal Love' in his shaayari but not about his 'socialistic' tendencies...here's what me thinks :))

found it quite natural, at one time, to get immersed in a 'revolution' of his own design...a war against injustice of 'all' kinds as he perceived it, be it the injustice done to him by people like his father/his beloved's father, or that perpetrated by other perceived oppressors against the man on the street. Sometime in the early sixties, Sahir's pen seemed to become his sword in this war, and he wrote:

Very quickly, of course, these 'socially-conscious' pieces brought the poet himself a label of 'the socialist'...all kinds of movements of a similar nature readily owned Sahir as their spokesman, and Sahir wrote more:

Sufi-poets usually equate ISHQ with IBAADAT, and many a time therefore, oppose organised religion and organised conflict (war) of all kinds. They also talk about love with the beloved being the same as love with God as well as with all of His creation. They consider this kind of love to be, sometimes, a difficult, yet the only way to 'get there'. Previous sufi-poets who have left a huge treasure of kalaam (usually sung, not recited...a lot of it in the form of Qawwalis / KaafiyaaN / Dohay / Rang) etc. They express a close affinity to all the popular love-ballads: Heer-Ranjha, Laila-Majnu, Sassi-Punnu, Dhola-Maaru, Shirin-Farhaad, even Radha-Krishna and Seeta-Ram.

Sahir was never very far from this preoccupation with ishq...he had written earlier in 'TalkhiyaaN':

He wrote plenty of love-songs, plenty of zamaanaa-khilaaf songs, plenty of insaan-ki-insaan-se-mohabbat songs...most of this stuff had couplets that relate to the concept of sufism (which may comment on 'pre-occupation' with material things, and may disagree with putting 'daulat' ahead of 'dil' but does not have an 'unconditional' problem with the use/enjoyment of material things as such) a lot more than to the narrower concept of anti-capitalism...understandably I guess, because when he found himself in the midst of success and 'capital' the guy did not abstain from an extravagant personal life-style himself ! He supported it thus:

An extract from an article contributed by Anupama on Hamara Forum (http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?showtopic=24011&st=120/)

Amrita Pritam wrote in her autobiography - Raseedi Ticket :-

"I recall - many years ago when Sahir had come to Delhi, he invited me and Imroz to the hotel where he was staying. We were there for a couple of hours. Sahir had placed an order for whisky and there were three glasses on the table. We returned deep into the night.And when it was almost midnight - Sahir called me up saying : " There are still three glasses lying on the table, and by turn I am sipping from each of them, and writing '' These Empty Goblets Are My Companions." ( Mere Saathi Khaali Jaam )

Mehfil se uth jane walon... the sense of being suddenly abandoned, it is a very dramatic and visual beginning. The word "abaad" is suggestive of being peopled, flourishing, whereas the opposite of that would be "barbaad" which is not actually used in the song to describe the poet's situation. Instead the opposting term is "awaara" "badnaam" suggesting his disassociation from any social moorings...

The only companions he has are -and it is in the repetition and brilliant rendition of Rafi's "mere saathi, mere saathi, mere saathi...khali jaam", that the song really packs the emotional punch...and it is this word "Khaali" that finally opposes the earlier analogies of mehfil and abaad.

That emptiness seeps into the following stanzas. He rejects any sense of fulfilment in their relationship, it has been a futile time offering nothing, "waqt Kata aur khel tamam".

The opposing images that he chooses for the lover and the girl who left him are unique in that they do not form what I can only call parallel oppositions. In the same way as "abaad" is not pitted against "barbaad" in the second stanza, in response to"tumne dhoondhi sukh ki daulat" the poet is not saying he has chosen "pyar ki daulat" but uses the much more galling "maine pala gham ka rog" ... It is definitely not a positive emotion that he pits against his beloved's materialism... There is nothing heroic or defiant but something very dreary about this image, it is a sickness that he has nurtured...Only in the last line does he allow himself an accusation: "Maine dil ko dil se tola/tumne maange pyar ke daam" but in the next stanza the tone lapses back into despair.

A situation where the beloved has chosen someone else over the lover/poet and is obviously in a better position is often accusatory in tone but in this song the dominant emotion is that of exhausion. He agrees that she understood the world better, she is a survivor, he is the crazy one who ended up getting angry and disillusioned. The second line is an ironic look at himself, rare in disappointed lovers... "tumko apnane nikla tha khud se bhi bezaar hua" he was looking to support her in a relationship and has ended up alienated from himself. The self criticism continues, he has ended up with nothing, his "house" blown up into dust, becoming a mere spectacle of the moment and he knows where he is headed...

Now take a look at another song from a drunk lover once again in Rafi's magical voice(I cannot imagine any other singer singing this song)

Whereas the first song emerges out of personal disappointment at the breaking up of a relationship the self ananlysis, depairing though it is,still functions from within the parameters(social/material/emotional), drawn by society. The second song is much more nihilistic. Emerging out of the same situation, it goes on to incredible, iconoclastic denunciations, a coalesing of perhaps a lot of the questions and emotions that one feels/or might feel across the span of a lifetime, or some of those at least...

He begins by attacking the three mainstays of human relationships...Dosti, wafa and mohabbat...He has realised what those concepts mean...just as he knows the truth about the value of the heart and the value of emotions.

In the second stanza, he rejects not just the lifestyle of the rich , but also that of the "muflis", an identity he sought to don in so many of his other poems, he has experienced both happiness and despair...and rejects both in the context how how fickle the mood of the world is vis-a vis both. In this poem too he uses repetition as a tool to drive home a point, in the first stanza he uses the word "Kya hai" to underscore his questioning, in the second stanza he uses the ironic "dekhi/dekh chuke".

The mood of the poem builds towards rejection of some of the most cherished subjects of his own poetry...

Love is nothing but restless imaginationBeauty is nothing but soulless lightLife is nothing beyond a few questions...

It is impossible to erase the culture of hatred in this world and impossible to cure the wounds of the soul... and finally moves to articulate some of his most iconoclastic metaphors in poetry...

Sultanat zulm, khuda vehm, museebat hai samaaj

And then ...

Let the mind sleep in such a way that the memories don't haunt...

Sahir has palpably moved away from the personal disappointment in love that the song begins with, moving to a sweeping rejection of everything that he has held dear uptil now. If the first poem is despairing, the poet disappointed in love coming face to face with the fact that his affair, his ideals and his life have been in vain, the second song is much vaster in scope, his personal disappointment quickly moving on to a rejection of all relationships, lifestyles, ideals and ideologies...The second poem is no less despairing but the scope of the despair is much wider, not just encompassing the poet and his life but all human endeavour...And yet the beauty and power of the poem lies in how personal he makes that rejection...

Sunday, April 20, 2008

A really offbeat song emerging from the pen of great Sahir Saheb that has been given the best of voice by the great Rafi Saheb. This is the most haunting melody by late Mohd. Rafi Saheb, as far as I am able to remember. It is absolutely superb ! I just love this song :-

Sunday, April 13, 2008

If you have never wept on seeing or hearing a movie song, have a look at this and try your self control. It is such a soulful song that Sahir Saheb put his soul in the song while writing it, Rafi Saheb put his soul in it while singing it and Balraj Sahni jii and Waheeda Rahman jii put their souls in it while enacting the scenes of the song. It is said that during the period this movie was released, Rafi Saheb actually sang this song on his daughter's marriage :-